Thursday, December 21, 2006

Is that thing Ti?

I'm pretty sure those will be the four most commonly heard words directed at the new owner of this beauty.

Finally, some pictures of a complete 953 lugged bike. Sorry it took so long. One editorial note, I'm leaving the steerer uncut for the customer on this one, hence the goofy looking steerer in this picture.

It's a pretty flashy bike, decked out with all that Campy Carbon stuff, Eurus wheels, Carbon bars and post, and most importantly: a matching stainless steel headbadge!

I don't usually put tubing decals on my frames as I mix and match tubes quite a bit and I never felt the tubing mattered much to the finished product. But in this case I think an exception needs to be made. The stainless tubing is what makes this thing possible and besides, who can resist such a sparkly decal!

All the logos other than the 953 decal and the headbadge were etched into the frame. I had suspicions about how this would look, but in the end I'm quite pleased with it. All the lettering came out very crisp and clean. I enlarged my downtube logo a bit from my usual size. This helped fill the big 35mm downtube, but the larger font size makes the letting look more crisp as well. It shoudl hold up quite a bit better than any decal would as well. It's very difficult to scratch, I tried on a few test samples and the only way I could ruin it was to go over it with some kind of abrasive.

The owner requested his name etched into the top-tube as well, I thought that came out really nice. Hopefully he doesn't mind me showing the world his name.

The complete bike came in around 17lbs as shown (including those 2 weighty Record bottle cages!). Not bad for a lugged steel bike.

In other news, both bikes I posted last time are still up for grabs, Probably not the best time of year to be trying to unload a couple really nice bikes, but they're both really, really great deals. You know you want one.... buy 'em before they hit ebay!

Finished up another frame this week as well, a nice sport tourer. I added a couple of fun details to this one too. Here you see the top of the brake bridge with one of my "B" 's added on top. Then I brazed the headbadge on this one and will be masking the paint around it. Thought I'd try something different, I think it'll look pretty sweet after paint.

In addition, I'm getting better with my engraver, this one has the owner's name engraved on the BB shell right below the serial #. I had hoped to engrave my double "B" logo on the brake bridge, but by the time I got both B's on there, it was pretty darn small, I thought the raised letter was more visible.

Well, I'm about out of time today, Have a great Christmas everone and remember...

Buy my bikes!

bbbb

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

953: A beautiful bike. Please ask Simon if he would be kind enough to post his impressions on cycling this bike on this blog. Happy Cycling!

Adam

Anonymous said...

Well Done Bob!! Very Nice!!

Dave Anderson

Zanotti Bicycles said...

WOW! That looks great! Awesome worksmanship!

jim g said...

Not only is this a lugged stainless bike, BB ups the ante with etched logos and flawless brazing...simply awesome!

A lugged sport-touring/randonneuring frameset built with this 953 tubing and Tektro R556 brakes would be JUST the thing...WOW! If that didn't win at NAHBS I'd eat my hat. ;)

Anonymous said...

Great site, I am bookmarking it!Keep it up!
With the best regards!
David

Edgar Jakobs said...

Happy new year Bob,
You created a great bike! Best wishes for 2007 for you and your family.
Edgar

Anonymous said...

Hello, thanks a lot, You'v done a great job.I can only realize how much time and resources does it take to create such a resource!Great work, I am impressed!